Beach Boy Bash

The Los Angeles Times was called to task for publishing photos of young street surfers riding the latest in skateboard design, Hamboards. The boards are longer, built to resemble surfboards giving the riders a different surface and experience more like surfboards than the smaller skateboards.

Times staffer Allen J. Schaben is the guilty culprit who put together a Web slide show to go with the story of several of the street surfers enjoying themselves without safety helmet and protective pads.

A reader complained the paper ought to have better sense than to publish photos of someone so blatantly putting themselves at risk. The paper explained it was their job to observe and report, not directly correct the bad habits of their subjects.

In California it’s Hamboards. In the Midwest it’s kids jumping from railroad bridges into creeks. In Florida the complaints are more about kids and surf without a flotation device.

I have a friend who as a police officer often has to deal with the results of people making mistakes.  He once told me “Stupid people are my job security.” It’s the same for photographers

My favorite photo from Schaben is below. Name the album(s). 1 – 2 – 3